Grinnell and Miller classic available online
Thu, 11 Mar 2004 08:06:28 -0800
From: Joseph Morlan
Hugh Harvey wrote:
...here is what Grinnell and Miller have to say in their 1944 opus The Distribution of the Birds of California.
This classic is available online at:
http://elibrary.unm.edu/condor/cooper/pca.htmlScroll down to number 27 and you can download the entire publication in either DjVu or PDF format.
Joseph Morlan, Pacifica, CA 94044
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Editor's Note: The DjVu ("DejaVu") format gives you a quite readable copy with a file size much much smaller than the PDF version. You can download free browser plugins for viewing DjVu documents here.Fwd: Huge American Robin flocks in the East Bay Hills
in the 1950s and 1960s
Thu, 11 Mar 2004 10:14:05 -0800
From: Tom
Condit
This is from the Friends of Sausal Creek mailing list.
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 15:21:12 PST
The spring sky was robin egg blue. These same thrushes serenaded us on our evening walk. Robins thrive in our new creek bed, and seems like they always have called the watershed home. I found this bit of bird lore in the Lake Merritt Naturalist files: Palo Seco Canyon used to be a winter home to thousands of migrating robins. Beginning in the mid-1950s until 1970, winter roosting numbers ranged from several hundred to 35,000. In 1968, heavy storms in late December and record low temperatures and snowfall in the Pacific Northwest, drove "phenomenal flocks" of robins to the canyon. On January 1, 1969, Paul Covel and Mr. and Mrs. Harry Overmire observed migrating robins at Skyline Blvd. and estimated 450,000 had passed on their way to the Palo Seco roost. Fred Barnes, stationed below the roost, observed 6000 coming up from the metropolitan area. A similar roosting area used to occur in Lakeside Park, Lake Merritt. On 10 January, 1932, 165,000 robins were counted in the trees in the park. Recoveries of banded Robins showed they were from Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. But some stayed here to nest. And today we see their mud-grass nests built on the low hanging alder branches.
Mark Rauzon
Tom Condit
Blue-winged Teal at Berkeley Marina
Fri, 12
Mar 2004 15:54:08 -0800 (PST)
From: Bob Power
Hi all:
I just listened to the Rare Bird hotline (415.691.8422) and Rich Stallcup reported a sighting of a male Blue-winged Teal, two female Blue-winged Teal, and a Male Blue-winged Teal X Cinnamon Teal hybrid. These birds were seen Thursday "at the southeast corner of the north basin on the Albany Shore just south of the racetrack."
For your advanced teal hybrid fieldmark workshop, you'll want to listen to the message.
I hadn't seen a posting on these birds so I thought I'd pass this along.
Good birding,
Bob Power
Editor's Note: The Albany/Berkeley border is just at the south edge of the Golden Gate Fields track itself (the stable area is in Berkeley). The North Basin is the shallow rectangular body of water south of the track, east of C�sar Ch�vez Park, and north of the Berkeley Meadow (which in turn is north of University Ave). The "southeast corner of the north basin" would be in the Berkeley Marina complex, not a part of the Albany shoreline. Take University Ave west toward the pier, turn north on Marina Blvd, and park when you reach the water (the North Basin) on the right. Walk the road along the south edge of the basin to the southeast corner.
Wilson's Snipe near Richmond Marina Bay
Fri,
12 Mar 2004 17:03:52 PST
From: Gail DeLalla
There were eight Wilson's Snipes along the Bay Trail south of Meeker Slough (and north of Point Isabel Regional Shoreline) in Richmond this morning. They were on the east side of the trail among lumber debris at the eastern edge of a pond south of the Richmond field station. Other species of interest were Barn Swallows checking out the mud quality, and two Black Oystercatchers and several Whimbrels on the bay side of the trail.
D. Gail DeLalla
Shadow Cliffs Regional Recreation Area, Pleasanton
Fri, 12 Mar 2004 19:18:21 -0800
From: Ron
One last plug against the water park then I'll keep my posts focused on birds....
I just went to Shadow Cliffs Regional Recreation Area in Pleasanton last Sunday. Lots of activity at the rookery this time of year. I'm hoping that city council votes against the massive water slide expansion. Hundreds of additional parking spaces would be added. The runoff from the cars will reduce the water quality at the lake. I'm not sure what land would be taken to make space for more cars. Many raptors inhabit the area of the water slides including kites and Red-shouldered Hawks. The water quality has already been affected by the loss of zone-7 water. Now it's fed from the ponds and there's a problem with algae. See the Pleasanton Weekly link below for more info and city council e-mail addresses.
http://www.pleasantonweekly.com/morgue/2003/2003_08_15.opinion15.html
Snow Bunting still at Clifton Court Forebay
Fri, 12 Mar 2004 20:43:24 -0800
From: Mike Feighner
East-Bay Birders:
As of 5:00 PM this evening the Snow Bunting was still at Clifton Court Forebay in Contra Costa County, just north of the first bend in the levee on the reservoir side of the levee.
Mike Feighner, Livermore, CA, Alameda County
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